What Fujitsu liked about Londonderry

The computer giant's new IT Applications Development Centre was approved by former Investment Minister Nigel Dodds in March 2008 with Invest NI contributing 2.26m in financial assistance to secure the project and leverage a total company investment of circa 8.8m.

Officially opened in May 2008 the development promised the creation of 150 new high quality lOT jobs.

Documents obtained by the Sentinel from Invest NI through Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation reveal the rationale behind the company's decision to choose Londonderry for further expansion.

According to an internal Invest NI briefing Fujitsu conducted a "major strategic review" to assess the "risk/cost" profile of a number of competing regions in 2006 and eventually chose Londonderry and Belfast as the most appropriate location for its new Near Shore Centre.

A number of factors were considered. These included geopolitical, socioeconomic, security, privacy, and legal protection considerations as well as the availability of skilled human resources.

The briefing to Mr Dodds prior to Fujitsu Services Limited's investment announcement advised that the region had been sold on the basis of a pre-existing Fujitsu presence; advanced telecoms infrastructure; the ability to recruit, retain and develop highly skilled and motivated resources within a lower salary inflation environment.

A dual-location strategy removed from significant competition; the cultural, language and customer services ethos; and a compatible legal and commercial environment fostering confidentiality and intellectual property protection were also identified as positives.

Consequently, Invest NI officials believed: "Fujitsu Services Limited believes that these qualities, when coupled with N. Ireland's geographical/timeline proximity to its EMEA customer base and underpinned by the proposed package of financial assistance offered by Invest NI affords the opportunity to establishing the new Centre in N. Ireland."

The new investment promised 30 new jobs at an existing site in Belfast and 120 jobs at FSL's new centre at Timber Quay in Londonderry.

The documents show that the company proposed the "employment ramp-up" would be completed over a three-and-a-half year period.

It was projected the investment would contribute an additional 4m per annum in gross basic salaries to the local economy.